REVIEW: Cihangir Atölye Sahnesi Presents FiLLER VE KARINCALAR

For his interpretation of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, actor Michael Caine told director Brian Henson, “I’m going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety.” This dignified approach revealed new human depths in a well-worn fable. Similarly, in their interpretation of legendary Turkish author Yaşar Kemal’s Filler Sultanı ile Kırmızı Sakallı Topal Karınca (The Elephant Sultan and the Red-Bearded Lame Ant), the performers of the Cihangir Atölye Sahnesi tackled the author’s parable with a comparable disciplined intensity. The result is an aesthetic tightrope act between Aesop’s fable and Antigone.

On the page, Filler ve Karıncalar is a didactic political drama. The Elephant Sultan hears of the hard-working ants from a bird vizier. The elephants invade the ants’ homeland, swiftly subjugating them. Through propaganda, the elephants convince some ants that they can rise to the elephants’ level within society. A red-bearded blacksmith ant eventually rallies a resistance, and the ants organize a successful overthrow. The plot’s themes are familiar, even cliché, but strong storytelling has the power to make old truths feel new. Under the direction of Arzu Gamze Kılınç, the ensemble harnessed the story’s simplicity to their advantage. Their adaptation from page to stage was captivating, thanks to their application of tragedian focus.

Kılınç’s staging features many hallmarks of black box theatre: uniform costumes, simple accessories, symbolic sheets moved across a unit set, all deployed with that combustible mix of imagination and discipline. At the play’s opening, ten ensemble members stand together, each wearing what looks like insulation piping around their necks. A man enters in Kabuki makeup with two large fans, representing the bird vizier. It’s a lot, and it never tries to be less. Other design elements emphasized the play’s epic ambitions. Berkay Özideş’s self-serious, Christopher Nolan-esque score could have overstated the play's dramatic capacities, but it instead elevated the simple fable into dreamlike folklore. The production manages to create something mammoth within an intimate space without overstating its case or overwhelming its audience.

The performance borrows directly from Greek tragedy in its use of choral recitation, to striking effect. Among the ants, this technique reinforces a sense of collective unity, both in fear and in rebellion. For the elephants, it transforms the sultan into a haunting, demonic force. This device of a chorus speaking in unison can seem simple in short bursts, but is difficult to sustain effectively for an entire performance. That I could easily follow, much less be affected by their dialogue with my limited Turkish, is a testament to their disciplined diction. Through a commitment to creativity, the production entices the audience to engage with their own imagination. In this exchange, where all focus is aimed at compelling storytelling, the play's politics are invigorating rather than sanctimonious, and its storytelling spirited rather than twee.

Director Arzu Gamze Kılınç, composer Berkay Özideş, and lighting designer/choreographer Muhammet Uzuner, together with a finely balanced eleven-actor ensemble, crafted an enchanting evening of well-disciplined epic storytelling.